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How Does Your Brand Experience Translate in Social Media?

According to Wikipedia, who quote the American Marketing Association, the definition of a brand is a “Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.” A good brand, however, does more than merely differentiate itself from the others: It creates an emotional attachment, a bond that says even at a higher price it still has fans that will buy the product. You could say that I’m a fan of Toyota because I bought their car shortly after the wave of recalls that hit them back in 2009 and 2010 that decreased consumer confidence in them. As consumers, we all have emotional bonds with the brands that we prefer – but how does our experience with these brands translate in social media?

In other words,

do social media interactions with brands help them create stronger or weaker emotional bonds with consumers?

Perhaps we are Mastercard users and then find out that we need an American Express card to “unlock” special Foursquare discounts. Do we change our allegiance? Or perhaps we never had an emotional tie to a credit card so it doesn’t matter? But how do we view AMEX now if we are a heavy Foursquare user?

What about the brands that just don’t listen to us in social media vs. those that do. How does that affect the “brand experience?”

These questions might sound trivial to some, but the last mile in companies using social media to align their marketing efforts with consumers will be to assure that their brand experience translates well in social media.

I ponder these issues as I am about to embark on my trip to Tokyo as the Brand Ambassador for All Nippon Airways. Klout Perks tempt “influencers” to try out products or receive discounts in hopes of “spreading the word,” but a true Brand Ambassador is someone that should have a deep emotional attachment with that brand. What does that “emotional attachment” look like? They are comprised of stories that your true fans can tell you about your brand.

In my case with ANA, I often flew from Japan to China for business, and could choose between the two main Japanese airlines: ANA and Japan Airlines (JAL). When you compare two competing brands, sometimes a negative experience with one of them will naturally make you lean towards another. Yes, part of why I love ANA has to do with negative brand experiences with JAL, who were the favorites of the Japanese business people I worked with.

What were these “negative experiences?” Let me recount one of them:

I have vivid memories of flying from Osaka to Beijing on JAL when they served lunch but did not offer multiple selections like other airlines do and instead only offered fish as the main dish. While I am fond of raw fish, I wasn’t a big cooked fish eater and was a little unhappy. Even my Japanese boss said that, from Japanese standards, the meal wasn’t a delicious one. In those pre-social media days, I actually wrote JAL a letter telling them how disappointed I was in them. Guess what? I received a response within a few weeks in impeccable English apologizing – but explaining that the Japan-China route was mainly flown by Japanese business people, and thus the meals were geared towards their tastes. JAL, in essence, shut me out of their brand.

Although this experience happened more than 10 years ago, it is still fresh in my memory.

I had more than one negative brand experience with JAL, but I have had many positive brand experiences with ANA.

My favorite was when I was flying from Osaka to Dalian, China. The plane was hitting severe turbulence, the kind where they ask the cabin attendants to discontinue their in-flight service and have a seat. It was getting pretty hairy, when all of the sudden the pilot made a public announcement. After introducing that he was the pilot, in the calmest of voices he said, “We are hitting turbulence, but in no way is the safety of this aircraft jeopardized. Please understand this and be patient while we make our way through it, which should be in 5 minutes.” My nervous self was calmed. This is something that I have heard ANA pilots say often on other flights since then, as if it was part of their training to ensure a positive brand experience. I have never had that sort of experience on any other airline to date – and I have hit bad turbulence on many occasions!

Social media allows consumers to be complainers about their brand experiences as much as it allows us to be story tellers of positive experiences. What does a positive social media brand experience look like? It could be as easy as when I tweeted out that I was on my first Alaska Airlines flight recently, and before the flight took off I had a response from them in the form of a simple tweet welcoming me on board. I had a smile on my face the entire flight – and it translated into a very positive brand experience for me. Many who have flown Virgin Air have have similar experiences.

I look forward to further reflecting on this topic of brand experiences and social media when I get to learn more about the ANA brand next week in Japan. Until then, have you had social media interactions with brands that have affected your loyalty to them, good or bad? Does your consumer brand recognize the importance of this in your social media efforts? Please help shed some light on this issue. Thanks!

Neal Schaffer is a leading authority on helping businesses through their digital transformation of sales and marketing through consulting, training, and helping enterprises large and small develop and execute on social media marketing strategy, influencer marketing, and social selling initiatives. President of the social media agency PDCA Social, Neal also teaches digital media to executives at Rutgers University, the Irish Management Institute (Ireland), and the University of Jyvaskyla (Finland). Fluent in Japanese and Mandarin Chinese, Neal is a popular keynote speaker and has been invited to speak about digital media on four continents in a dozen countries. He is also the author of 3 books on social media, including Maximize Your Social (Wiley), and in late 2019 will publish his 4th book, The Business of Influence (HarperCollins), on educating the market on the why and how every business should leverage the potential of influencer marketing. Neal resides in Irvine, California but also frequently travels to Japan.

About Neal Schaffer

Neal Schaffer is a leading authority on helping businesses through their digital transformation of sales and marketing through consulting, training, and helping enterprises large and small develop and execute on social media marketing strategy, influencer marketing, and social selling initiatives. President of the social media agency PDCA Social, Neal also teaches digital media to executives at Rutgers University, the Irish Management Institute (Ireland), and the University of Jyvaskyla (Finland). Fluent in Japanese and Mandarin Chinese, Neal is a popular keynote speaker and has been invited to speak about digital media on four continents in a dozen countries. He is also the author of 3 books on social media, including Maximize Your Social (Wiley), and in late 2019 will publish his 4th book, The Business of Influence (HarperCollins), on educating the market on the why and how every business should leverage the potential of influencer marketing. Neal resides in Irvine, California but also frequently travels to Japan.

Reader Interactions

Comments

The one thing thats big to recognize is that social media has made businesses better. it has opened more feedback and understanding for business which has been incredible to those that have listened to their customers and have pivoted their product to fit the customers needs.

This is a really nice example of how social media can be used to enhance the experience of a customer. I like your point on how some companies are trying to use gamification to encourage activity in social media. When the social media action is driven simply by incentive and not emotion i feel that it drives much less value.

What do you think of brands that send samples and such to influential bloggers. On the one hand, the bloggers are often bribed to blog about the item. On the other hand, it’s also up to the blogger what they say, perhaps the product will indeed illicit a valuable experience that transfers well into the social community.

I see the brand experience in social media and influencer outreach to be two different things. That being said, if I was a luxury brand reaching out to bloggers, I would probably want to fly them in for a bloggable VIP event rather than give them a free sample.

In fact, maybe the two things aren’t so similar after all. When representing a brand, whatever activity you do with people, whether offline or online, MUST be aligned with your ideal brand experience.

Neal, your post certainly supports the notion that when a company chooses a person to represent its brand, the relationship should be nurtured for a very, very long time. Well after the engagement “contract” (a legal construct) expires.

There have been times when I have shared my voice
on SM both positive and negative. I went on a bit of a rant about the complete
lack of customer service with Virgin Mobile after they had not cared about my
issues or the community that supported their cell service. (Richard Branson was
no longer part of this company). It was disturbing to see how the brand that
had been professionally build was being torn apart from the lack of
communication with the consumers.

On the flip side, I shared a very positive story which
dealt with a car accident and my experience with Travelers Insurance going the
extra mile to be there for me. I felt the genuine support from everyone at
Travelers Insurance. I thanked everyone and let the company know I wrote of my
experience. The reps passed it on to others within the company. It felt good to have a positive
experience and share it with others.

Thanks for the comment AJ. I am fascinated by how brands can relate to their customers in social to continue the offline brand experience should they want to – but how so few choose to do so. Those that do get back and support us in social will win the brand loyalty of social media users. I think it’s something that a lot of companies forget about in their approach to social.

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ABOUT NEAL

Neal Schaffer is a leader in helping educate executives and professionals on social media as well as in implementing successful social media strategies for businesses. CEO of the social media agency PDCA Social, social media educator at Rutgers University and the Irish Management Institute, social media keynote speaker who has spoken at hundreds of events on four continents, and author of three social media books, Neal is a true innovator and influencer in the growing world of social media for business.